Philip had waited his turn to exit the plane. He knew that his role as head of the household had changed for ever. Furthermore, his hopes for a continuing career in the Royal Navy were dashed. Although the death of the King at such an early age could not have been foreseen, the Queen’s whole life had prepared her for the change of circumstances. Not so Philip, who described his feelings years later: ‘Within the house, whatever we did, it was together. I suppose I naturally filled that position. People used to come to me and ask me what to do. In 1952 the whole thing changed, very, very considerably.’

As the sovereign, the Queen had duties from which Philip was excluded. She had her weekly meetings with the prime minister. Every day she was sent red boxes full of papers – Cabinet minutes, Foreign Office telegrams, documents, briefs and drafts – none of which were shown to Philip. ‘It was bloody difficult for him,’ said Mike Parker. ‘In the navy, he was in command of his own ship – literally. At Clarence House, it was very much his show. When we got to Buckingham Palace, all that changed.’

In his new role as consort, Philip sought the guidance of Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who as the husband of Queen Juliana had fifteen years’ experience as consort, four of them since she took the throne. Bernhard was one of the founders of the World Wildlife Fund and its president before Philip took on that role. Bernhard gave him the benefit of his advice: ‘You are new at this thing and you probably don’t realise what you are up against. Practically everything you do will be a subject of criticism. You can’t ignore it because some of it may be justified. And even if it isn’t it may be politic to heed it. But don’t let it get you down. In this job, you need a skin like an elephant.’

The move from Clarence House to Buckingham Palace was insisted upon by Winston Churchill. This was an enormous wrench for Philip, who had put so much time and effort in the refurbishment of Clarence House, the only home he had ever been able to call his own. For the Queen, she was quite simply going back to the place where she had lived for much of her life, so she felt at ease there. The palace was staffed with courtiers who answered only to the monarch. ‘Philip was constantly being squashed, snubbed, ticked off, rapped over the knuckles,’ according to Mike Parker. ‘It was intolerable. The problem was simply that Philip had energy, ideas, get-up-and-go, and that didn’t suit the Establishment, not one bit.’ The same thing went for Windsor Castle, which became the weekend retreat of the royal family.